Who’s on the UK mid-market’s Top Track 250?

Wednesday, October 20, 2010 | Posted by: Fiona Cullinan
| Tags: business, Grant Thornton, list, sponsor, mid-market, Top Track 250, Sunday Times, league table, Fast Track

If you didn’t catch it at the weekend, the Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 250 list, sponsored by Grant Thornton, was published. The Fast Track league table features UK companies ranking just below the top 100 private firms for sales, provided they have also either increased sales or operating profit. Here is the lowdown…

Some quick stats:

• Two-thirds of companies on the league table improved their operating profit margin in their latest year and 85% increased their sales to a combined £65.2 billion – equivalent to roughly 5% of GDP.
• 42,786 people were added to the staff headcount, bringing the combined employees to 515,499 – equal to 1.6% of the UK workforce.
• TJ Morris was the number one company (up from 39 last year) with sales of £590m in 2010. It has expanded its Home Bargains retail chain to 220 stores, and plans to open a further 150 in the next three years.
• The top five on the list were in order of rank were: TJ Morris (discount retailer, Liverpool); Watson Petroleum (fuel distributor, Wiltshire); Aurora Fashions (retailer, London); Vestey Group (food distributor, farmer, London); and Dunbia (meat product wholesaler, Co Tyrone).
• 40 companies on the league table reported a sales decline but were able to cut operational costs, or sell part of the business to improve operating profit. Examples include jewellery retailer Aurum (117), cotton merchant, Plexus Cotton (193) and department store operator Harvey Nichols (203).
• A regional breakdown shows most of the companies are based in the Southeast (55) and London (51). The remainder breaks down as follows: Northwest (34), Midlands (31), Northeast (18), Scotland (18), East (13), Northern Ireland (13), Southwest (10) and Wales (7).

For the full Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 250 list, visit Fast Track. For details of how Grant Thornton can help with your mid corporate business needs, visit our Entrepreneurial Services page. 

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